A field guide to Victorian tile patterns

Walk down any Victorian terrace in Cambridge and you are walking past a pattern library. Doorsteps, hallways, garden paths and church floors, laid by hand more than a century ago, and still crisp because the colour goes all the way through the tile. Every Grouted piece starts with one of these patterns, so here is a short field guide to the classics.

The checkerboard

The oldest and boldest: two colours, alternating, usually black and white or red and cream. Victorians laid it straight or on the diagonal, where it reads as diamonds instead of squares. It is the pattern on our photo frames and half the coasters in the shop.

Tumbling blocks

Three rhombus tiles in light, medium and dark make a cube that seems to pop out of the floor. Geometricians call the layout a rhombille tiling; quilters call it tumbling blocks; most people call it “the 3D one”. It has a whole post of its own, and a tray.

Pinstripes and borders

Diagonal runs of dark tiles across a pale ground, used by Victorians to edge a hallway the way a frame edges a picture. On a coaster the stripe does the same job in miniature.

The sunburst medallion

Concentric diamonds radiating from a centre tile, warming as they go. You will find them in the middle of grander entrance halls, and on our one-of-a-kind serving trays.

Next time you are out, look down. And if a doorstep stops you in your tracks, send Dani a photo through the contact page: local floors have a habit of turning into next season’s pieces. Everything in the shop ships anywhere in the UK.